Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to deployment apparatus for coiled or rolled resources and more particularly, but not necessarily exclusively, to deployment apparatus for laying and recovery of road covering track normally stored in a rolled configuration such as, for example, a traversable temporary roadway, walkway or runway.
Description of the Related Art
It is known, in many applications, to transport and deploy a temporary roadway system, wherein a road-covering track comprising interconnected profiled panels, is wound around a spool into a roll. In a known deployment method, the spool may be mounted, via a spool stand, on a flatbed body or trailer of a heavy goods vehicle, such that the winding axis of the spool is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle body. As illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawings, the road-covering track 1 is drawn off the spool 2 and a pair of chains and straps 5, which are attached at the end of the track 1, are positioned under the vehicle's rear wheels 4, over a pair of rollers 4a, as shown in FIG. 1A of the drawings. The vehicle 3 then reverses, placing the chains/straps 5 under tension and causing the road-covering track 2 to be removed from the rotating spool 2 and laid onto the ground.
Other methods for deployment of this type of road-covering track are also known, that employ vehicles such as a tele-handler or wheeled loader, but they all operate in much the same manner as described above, whereby a constant tensioning device is used to automatically lay the roadway in tension and the laying process is determined by the speed of the moving vehicle. An alternative method of deployment may be performed by means of a remote control device that requires the operator and driver to synchronise the speed of vehicle travel with the speed of spool rotation. The operator depresses the spool rotation button on the pendant control to correspond with the travelling speed of the vehicle. If the electrical system fails, the operator can use hydraulic manual override levers to rotate the spool and, if complete hydraulic failure occurs, the operator can operate a manual handpump to release the spool rotation and the roadway can be manually pulled from the spool and placed under the vehicle's wheels.
In all of these cases, it normally requires at least two people to set up the deployment apparatus for use, namely the driver and an operator, and the process can be time consuming and awkward. There are many commercial and military applications in which a temporary road covering track of this type is required to be deployed and subsequently recovered, quickly and conveniently, especially within rough terrain and/or potentially hazardous environments, where speed and efficiency are paramount, without necessarily requiring two or more operatives to effect such deployment.